Alfeld (dpa / lsw) - Scammers pretended to be the wife of a 50-year-old on the Whatsapp messenger service and cheated him out of a four-digit sum. As the police announced, the man's son from Alfeld (Hildesheim district) received a message from the scammers on Saturday. In it, they pretended to be his mother, who had lost her cell phone abroad, so she called another number and urgently needed money.
He forwarded the message to his father, who transferred the requested amount. Since his wife was actually abroad, he initially had no suspicions. It was only when he reached his actual wife that the fraud was revealed.
According to the police, the number of such fraud incidents is steadily increasing. She therefore advises those affected to agree on code words for sensitive telephone calls and chats. In addition, the criminal police need the chat histories for their investigations. The histories should therefore not be deleted.
According to a report by NDR, criminals in Lower Saxony have already stolen millions of euros with scams via Whatsapp or SMS in the first ten months of 2022.
